The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were among the viewers for the gala of a spectacular new David Attenborough film at the Natural History Museum

A Gala turn-out including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sported 3D glasses in honour of David Attenborough’s new film at the Natural History Museum last night, embarking on a pitch-black encounter with dinosaurs, ice age beasts and giant reptiles via the latest CGI technology.

Airing to the public on Sky television on New Year’s Day, Natural History Museum Alive 3D features a diplodocus, a gigantophis – a snake which spanned 36 metres around 40 million years ago – and the long-extinct, giant flightless Moa.

“I have been coming to the Natural History Museum since I was a boy,” revealed Attenborough.

“It’s one of the great places to come to learn about natural history. In this film we have the technology to bring back to life some of the most romantic and extraordinary extinct creatures that can be conceived.

“Some are relatively recent animals like the dodo, others older like the dinosaurs, and some we only know through fossil evidence.

“Using our current scientific knowledge, this film brings these creatures alive allowing me to look at some of the biggest questions surrounding them.”

Attenborough, who took part in a question-and-answer session with Sky News stalwart Dermot Murnaghan, hopes the film will help visitors see the museum in a “new and exciting” light, aided by a BAFTA and Emmy award-winning team whose credits include the blockbuster Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises.

Dr Michael Dixon, the Director of the Museum, said it had been “a real pleasure” to host the Duchess’s first engagement as the Patron of the museum, adding that the film had been the result of a “long friendship” between Attenborough and the institution.

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